UA music instructor performs in Afghanistan

By Whitney HobsonSpecial to The Tuscaloosa News

Friday

Nov 27, 2009 at 12:01 AM

On a day when most people sat down to enjoy a turkey dinner with their family, Beth Gottlieb, a percussion instructor at the University of Alabama, wasn’t sure where she would be, except that it was somewhere in Afghanistan.

TUSCALOOSA | On a day when most people sat down to enjoy a turkey dinner with their family, Beth Gottlieb, a percussion instructor at the University of Alabama, wasn’t sure where she would be, except that it was somewhere in Afghanistan.Gottlieb and her husband, Danny Gottlieb, play percussion for the Lt. Dan Band, founded by actor Gary Sinise, who played the character Lt. Dan in the 1994 movie “Forrest Gump.” The band, which works often with the USO, played for the troops somewhere in Afghanistan for the Thanksgiving holiday. Because of the recent attacks on UN troops in Afghanistan, the security has been heightened, and the band didn’t know exactly where they would be. “Your guess is as good as mine,” Beth Gottlieb said last week, before she left Alabama. “Will we be eating turkey? I don’t know. We’re supposed to eat with the troops, wherever they are. They won’t tell us (where), which is good. You can’t trust anyone over there. But it will be good for the troops to have us eating with them.”Although, the band has never been to a war zone before, Gottlieb said it will not be their first brush with danger in the military. The band was at the Fort Hood military base getting ready to play a show Nov. 5 when a gunman went on a rampage that killed 13 people.“We were right there when Fort Hood happened,” she said. “They brought the killer in the basement of the building where we were. “We’re going back to play a remembrance show on Dec. 11.”The Lt. Dan Band works with the USO in about 80 percent of their shows, Gottlieb said. Their mission is to play for soldiers, past and present, fit and wounded. Most weekends are spent playing at military bases around the United States and sometimes even in Asia and Europe.“Last year, we went to North and South Korea,” Beth Gottlieb said. “That was pretty intense. Walking into North Korea, there was a guy pointing guns right at us. We played a show right there at the U.S. military base on the border.”Sinise asked the Gottliebs to join his band after working with them during Epcot’s Christmas Candlelight show in 2004. At that time, the Gottliebs lived in Orlando and worked with Disney World, playing in the orchestra. Sinise was the guest narrator.“He’s the nicest guy,” Gottlieb said. “He’s got family in the military. My husband and I have family in the military. It’s nice to show my family that we can support the military, too.”Each band member receives a medal, slipped to them in handshakes at every military base they visit. Gottlieb said that Sinise’s collection is visible behind his desk at his office on the set of his TV show, “CSI: New York.” The band has more than 200 songs in its repertoire, ranging from rock to country to R&B. Although songs like “God Bless the USA” and Gottlieb’s favorite, “Hero,” are always touching and popular, one song always steals the show.“You know, it’s funny, one of the most popular songs we play is ‘Sweet Home Alabama,’ ” Gottlieb said. “People go nuts! Gary always asks, ‘Is there anyone here from Alabama?’ Even if no one raises their hand, people go nuts.”Although the band plays to lift the spirits of soldiers, there have been a few moments that reminded Gottlieb why she spends her free time traveling with the band. One moment came while the band played at a base in Great Lakes, Mich., for soldiers who were being deployed to Afghanistan the next day. Seeing the soldiers’ excitement outweigh the nervousness, she said. Another moment occurred when the band played a show last year at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital in Washington, D.C.“This 5-year-old little girl came up to Gary and said, ‘Lt. Dan, can you fix my daddy’s legs like yours?’” Beth Gottlieb said. “He just picked her up and hugged her, and I thought, ‘That’s why we do this.’ ”Although she works hard with the Lt. Dan Band, Gottlieb also makes sure her students are her top priority. She is a 1983 graduate of the School of Music, and began teaching at UA in the fall. “I love it, it’s what I do in my life, really being a musician and a music educator,” Gottlieb said. “I take this very seriously, I become like a second mom to my students. They all call me ‘Miss Beth.’ I see them for one-on-one lessons. I make sure they’re OK with academics, music and health. It all really comes together.”The band left for Afghanistan on Nov. 20 and will return to the United States on Saturday.“It was supposed to be longer, but they had to cut it shorter because of the U.N. attacks,” Gottlieb said. “But I’m OK. I think we’ll have enough time … Who knows what we’ll eat, where we’ll sleep. Just go in, and be spontaneous. It’s scary, but it’s exciting.”

On the Web: Visit www.ltdanband.com.

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